Subjunctive KoL   Subjunctive KoL: MoonEffects

The Kingdom has two moons, Ronald and Grimace. Each cycles through eight phases. Ronald changes phase every day, while Grimace changes only every other day. Thus, a complete cycle through both moons takes 16 days. On June 2, 2006, a third element was added to the mix -- a "minimoon" (often unofficially called "Hamburglar"). It has an 11-day cycle, so it does not fit into the regular 16-day cycle. It is discussed in more detail below.

Note that the moons wax and wane in the opposite direction from Earth's moon (at least as viewed from the Northern Hemisphere). If the moon is "C"-shaped, then it is waxing, while a "D"-shaped moon is waning.

Not all possible combinations of moons occur. In particular, since at the beginning of the cycle both moons are new, there is never a point when both moons are full.

The moons affect a number of things in the Kingdom. As the documentation says, the exact value of that number is classified, but here are some things that we know about:

There are six special days in a 16-day cycle of the main moons, commonly referred to as "stat days", two when Ronald is full, two when Grimace is full, and two when the two moons are equal. These stat days are not affected by the position of the minimoon. Their effects are:

Note that prior to NS-13, the stat days granted a 50% increase rather than a 25% increase.

Here's a full chart showing the cycling of the main moons. Day 1 will always fall on the 1st of odd-numbered months, and Day 9 will always fall on the 1st of even-numbered months. "Total" indicates the total fullness, which is used in computing some of the other effects; see further discussion below.

Day of CycleRonaldGrimaceTotalSpecial
1newnew0Mox day
21/4+new1 
31/2+1/4+3 
43/4+1/4+4 
5full1/2+6Mys day, x2 MP on rest
63/4-1/2+5 
71/2-3/4+5 
81/4-3/4+4 
9newfull4Mus day, x2 HP on rest
101/4+full5Mus day, x2 HP on rest
111/2+3/4-5 
123/4+3/4-6 
13full1/2-6Mys day, x2 MP on rest
143/4-1/2-5 
151/2-1/4-3 
161/4-1/4-2Mox day

The minimoon goes through an 11-day cycle. Each day it advances two positions on the following chart. Its lightness or darkness is not determined independently, but rather by the other moons.

Position #PositionLight or Dark?
1Directly between Ronald and GrimaceSpecial; see below
2Over the left side of GrimaceOpposite of the part of Grimace it's over
3Over the right side of GrimaceOpposite of the part of Grimace it's over
4To the right of GrimaceSame as the part of Grimace it's adjacent to
5Behind Grimace (invisible)n/a
6Between Ronald and Grimace, closer to GrimaceSame as the part of Grimace it's adjacent to
7Between Ronald and Grimace, closer to RonaldSame as the part of Grimace it's adjacent to
8Behind Ronald (invisible)n/a
9To the left of RonaldSame as the part of Ronald it's adjacent to
10Over the left side of RonaldOpposite of the part of Ronald it's over
11Over the right side of RonaldOpposite of the part of Ronald it's over

When it's directly between Ronald and Grimace, the minimoon is determined by the combination of both:

The other effects of the moons are dependent on the total amount of light being emitted by the moons. To compute the total fullness, add the fullness of the two main moons in quarters. Thus, if Ronald is 3/4 full and Grimace is 1/2 full, the total fullness would be 5 (as listed in the chart above). Then, apply the minimoon as follows:

Now, the total fullness has the following effects:

The Grimacite items are special: as you might expect, they are only affected by Grimace and the minimoon (which was part of Grimace before the collision). The formula is quite simple: add 10 for each quarter of darkness that Grimace has, and add another 10 if the minimoon is also present and dark. This is the bonus that the Grimacite items have.

With the arrival of the minimoon, some speculation has been floating around about possible additional effects of the minimoon. None of these has been confirmed yet.

[WWW]The Noblesse Oblige calendar is an excellent calendar illustrating all of the moon effects.